A Fragmented Tale
by SavageNymph
Summary: The period between Birth By Sleep and Kingdom Hearts I  SPOILERS for BBS  Xehanort is assimilating into life as an apprentice of Ansem the Wise but the small, faint whisper of Terra still beats within his heart. LeaxIsa TerraxAqua, starring VIICC charries
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Other Half

**(Xehanort/Terra POV)**

"Xehanort, is something wrong? You seem distracted today."

Ansem the Wise stopped at his best apprentice's desk and raised one eyebrow, voice a genteel mix between fond and curious.

Xehanort looked up from the diagram of the heart he was working on, starting slightly. "My apologies, sir. I did not sleep well last night."

"Perhaps you need a break." Ansem touched Xehanort's hand lightly. "It would do you no good to doze off here. We all know you have been through a traumatic experience, my boy."

"Yes. Thank you, sir."

"And you still have no memories of your past? Before you were found here?"

Xehanort looked down, closing his eyes as if fearing the bright orange would slide and change, becoming the deepest ocean blue and betray him. "No, sir. None."

"All we found was that armor." Ansem chuckled. "Like a baby in a basket delivered onto a doorstep in the dead of night, it is the only mark of who you were."

"Yes, sir."

Ansem peered down at him. "Are you unwell, Xehanort?"

"No, sir."

The white-haired youth stood. "I will be in my chambers. I hope to return by dusk, as soon as the fatigue leaves me."

"Very well." Ansem nodded. "And if you could bring some sea salt ice-cream with you on your way back, it would be much appreciated."

A small smile touched Xehanort's mouth. "As you wish, sir."

Xehanort wandered through the gardens that surrounded the castle, unsure of where his destination truly was. Going back to the rooms that had been assigned to him, stuffy and high up in the castle, seemed a poor choice.

"Lea!" A slender, blue-haired boy ran past him suddenly, panting slightly. "Lea! Where the hell are you?"

The boy stopped and turned to look at Xehanort. "Have you seen Lea?"

"I'm sorry." Xehanort shook his head. "I do not know the one you speak of."

"Oh." The boy huffed slightly. "Are you Ansem's new apprentice? The one who they found?"

"I am."

"Well, that explains it." The boy nodded to himself, unsmiling. "_Everyone _here knows Lea. I'm Isa, by the way."

The boy gave an odd, two-fingered solute before continuing his mad dash where he left off, sprinting across the gardens and yelling for the boy, Lea.

"Isa." Xehanort said quietly, wincing as the name doubled in his mind, as that other voice that sometimes still whispered struggled for a similar three-letter name.

_"Ven…" _

Xehanort pressed his hand against his temple, panting slightly. Sometimes it was all too easy—this was his body, no one else inhabited it. There was no double-whisper in his mind or a shadowy second heart that seemed to beat next to his own.

Sometimes, it was like he was being pushed out of his own head. All night last night, he had dreamt of that forsaken world, the Land of Departure. What had become of it, he didn't know. It was lost with its apprentices and master. But that didn't stop him from dreaming of it constantly, painfully. And in those dreams, he was not himself, but his cursed Other Half.

_Terra._

Xehanort sighed and walked on, deciding that he would meander through town. See if he could run into Braig, his fated cohort. The man had recognized him instantly and they had continued their alliance. Though what Xehanort was working for now, he wasn't quite sure. Changing bodies had been more of an intense process then he'd originally planned, and he needed a long period of time to adjust. Braig was growing impatient. Well, he'd have to wait. The man was a pawn, anyway. Nothing more.

As he walked into town, that longing that seemed a part of him constantly hit him again. He wanted to know where that armor was. The girl's armor.

_Aqua…_

Ansem had taken it to be looked at, examined. To see if could unlock any secrets of Xehnort's past, which of course was folly. Xehanort had two pasts, and could remember both perfectly. He just couldn't tell either to Ansem, or any of the other men he worked with now. How Xehanort yearned to see it, to—

"Yo, Xehanort."

Xehanort suppressed a sigh as the familiar, grating voice of Ansem's daughter struck him. The poor girl was cruel and vapid. Cunning enough to torture whomever she was in the company of, but not quite smart enough to work with her father in the laboratory.

He turned to see her standing a few feet behind him, hands on her hips. She was a tall, bony girl with shoulder-length blond hair pulled into two insect antenna-like pigtails and piercing green eyes.

"Hello, Arlene." Xehanort sighed. Ansem had asked his daughter to keep an eye on Xehanort, probably to keep the girl out of his hair.

"What're you doing in town?" Arlene licked a sea salt ice-cream (the shared favorite of father and daughter). "Aren't you supposed to be in the lab with my dad?"

"I was…feeling unwell. Your father said I could take a break."

Arlene made a face. "Whatever. I'm just looking for Lea. You seen 'im?"

Why was everyone asking him that today? No, he hadn't seen the blasted boy. He'd actually _never _even seen—

"Arlene, are you bothering people again?"

A sarcastic, obviously adolescent voice came from behind him yet again. Xehanort turned to see a tall, frightfully skinny boy standing behind him. The boy had brilliant red hair that spiked up around the crown of his head. He was wearing the most ridiculous clothes, and a small shield was dangling lazily from each hand.

"Lea!" Arlene skipped over and grabbed the boy's vest and tugged it violently. "Where have you been? You're such a moron, always hiding!"

Lea frowned. "I'm hiding from Y-O-U, Arlene."

Arlene narrowed her eyes. "Who's Y-O-U? Someone I should know about? IS IT A GIRL? OMIGOD YOU CHEATER!"

Lea sighed and looked at Xehanort as if to say: _can you believe what I have to put up with? _

Xehanort took pity on him. "Lea, I met a friend of your earlier who was looking for you. Isa."

"Isa?" Lea's face lit up. "Where'd you seem him? That dope totally ditched me this morning!"

"In the gardens."

"Thanks!" Lea started to move away from Arlene, who is response tightened her grip. Lea winced. It certainly looked painful.

"You're always with Isa." Arlene whined. "Why don't you spend some time with meeee?"

"Because," Lea jerked his arm away and started backing up, holding his shields up slightly, "Isa's my best friend, not you. And honestly, you annoy me. Got it memorized?"

With that, the red-haired boy ran so fast Xehanort could barely follow his movements. Arlene huffed and stamped her foot. "What a jerk!"

Xehanort turned to look at her. "Is he a friend of yours?"

Arlene smiled. "He's my true love. Well, he will be. Sometimes boys just need some time. And a few sound beatings."

Xehanort frowned, and he felt a twist of displeasure deep in the recesses of his mind. The Other One disliked this girl as well. Perhaps because she was so unlike the delicately strong, vividly beautiful girl that they both longed for. Xehanort, because she was the one this body wanted.

"I need to return now." Xehanort bowed slightly. "I shall see you soon, Arlene."

"Yeah, whatever." She slurped her ice-cream. "Just tell daddy that if I catch that creepy Ienzo snooping around my private garden again, I'll kick his little ass."

Xehanort nodded noncommittally and started walking, glad to be away from Arlene and her abrasive personality. He didn't really care what Ienzo did; the boy was quiet and if he every spoke, it was only polite. Even took good care of the child, so it was hardly a bother.

Honestly, whatever annoyed Arlene wasn't a concern to Xehanort. The only thing that worried him was whether or not Ienzo would actually be harmed by Ansem's ferocious daughter. The poor boy didn't deserve it.

_"Aqua?" Terra walked through the dark void, each step utterly silent. "Ven?"_

_ A glimmer of light seemed to glow in the distance, but no amount of walking ever put him any nearer to it. He desperately wished for his body back—to able to walk in the light again. He couldn't find his friends like this, trapped in a limbo of dark and light, dead and a live._

_ "I'm so lost." He clutched his heart, head bowing. "Master Eraqus, please help me." _

_ As usual, nothing changed. Terra walked on, wearily keeping his eyes on the light. He has to keep going that direction. _

_ He had no other choice. _


	2. Red Leather

Chapter Two

Red Leather

**(Lea POV)**

Lea flicks the match against the box, watching as the small flame bloomed into existence. He yawned, waiting as the fire ate the small twig of fire that inhabited. Seconds before it reached his fingertips, Lea flicked the match into the small tray he kept on his window. It landed with a delicate clatter among its fellows. He'd all ready gone through half a matchbox this morning.

This is what happens, Lea thought tiredly, when I wake up too early.

His mom wasn't even awake yet, and she had to get up really early to go to work. The sun had cracked the darkness of dawn just a half hour or so ago, and now Lea was being a pyro because he was bored.

He groaned quietly and rolled over, letting his hand fall over the edge of the bed and graze the floor. His room was a mess, cluttered with his clothes, books, movies, and games. Tacked to the walls were pictures of him and Isa, depicting everything from them grinning at the camera and each holding an ice-cream, to Lea drawing a mustache on a sleeping-Isa's face. Posters adorned the walls as well, sharing the space with various newspaper clippings. Most of these were about Ansem and his apprentices. Though none of them ever said what the scientists were truly doing.

Lea yawned and considered just screwing it and getting up. But Isa wasn't much of a morning person: he was no fun until at least ten or so. What was he going to do for the next few hours? Moving around the house might wake his mom up, and she barely got enough sleep as it was.

"Soooooo bored." Lea muttered. "This is annoying."

He grabbed a random book off his floor and flipped it open to the middle. It was Ansem the Wise's Theory Of The Heart, which both him and Isa had taken a vow to study until they could understand what it all meant. They were desperate to get inside the laboratories and twisting mazes of Ansem's castle, to see what the man was coming up with. What it meant for them, for their world. The section he'd opened up to was a particularly nasty bit that he still hadn't quite figured out:

_And what is the Heart but an extension of self, of our deepest desires and darkest secrets? If you are to plumb the recesses of the Heart, then you must be prepared to find the darkness that lurks within us all—to truly unlock the secrets, to understand, then one must first face the idea that we all hold a monster within us. A monster that holds the key to our undoing, and our survival. What if we could see this monster, locate its essence in our own spirits? Would it then be possible to flush it out, to flood the darkest parts of our Hearts with light?_

_A dear colleague of mine professes often, when we are discussing matters of Heart, that you cannot have light without dark, nor darkness without light. "The blackest darkness will always have a light at the end," he tells me, "and the brightest light, a spot of darkness to help you see your way."_

_Does this mean that the darkness in our Hearts is meant to be there, carefully guiding our actions and spreading through our light? I do not agree. We have the power to fight this darkness, to become beings of true light. If we could unlock these secrets, find the Key that unlocks the heart, than perhaps we could eradicate this blackness within us…_

Isa had scribbled on this page in his herky-jerky handwriting, underlining phrases and circling words. He got this stuff way more than Lea did. At the very bottom of the page he'd written:

The Key of Hearts.

Lea didn't know what meant, or where Isa had gotten it. He'd read the same passage multiple times and never made the connection. But, still, something about it…seemed to shiver with promise, giving Lea goose bumps. Something within those four words was the answer to everything, all their questions. All they needed to do was figure out what.

He dropped the book again and picked up another one. This one was thinner, more well-worn than Theory Of The Heart. It was an old collection of fairy-tales, of heroes and warriors. His mother had used to read them aloud to Lea, back before his father died and his mom was forced to work constantly.

His old favorite was called The Keyblade Masters. It was about three friends, back before The Keyblade Wars practically eradicated Masters or Bearers. The three friends started out on a small world; surrounded by an ocean that none could pass. They trained every day, each trying to be the best. In the end, one of the friends wanted to leave the world, so he set off on a boat and drowned. The last two friends fell in love, but one was so grieved at the loss of the drowned friend that he lost the ability to fight, and in the loss of his keyblade, faded away to nothingess. The last keyblade bearer, now suffering the loss of their friend and lover, made a journey to the top of the mountain that made up their world. There, the keyblade bearer begged to see their friends one last time. A voice came to them, words shivering in the sky from an unknown source. The voice told them that their friends were not dead, but had passed into a new world—and if the keyblade bearer was brace enough, they could go to the new world as well. The keyblade bearer was not brave enough, though, and did not believe that there were any other worlds out there, and that their friends were dead, not somewhere else. So they stayed on the island, and died years later as a keyblade Master, old and alone.

His mother hated that story. She said it was depressing. Lea loved it. It gave him a reason to be brave, to push the limits of his world until they broke and he found something else at the edge. Something even better. That's what him and Isa wanted to do. The wanted to find something beyond this world that they lived in now.

He thought of that boy who had visited so abruptly, a few months ago. Ven. Funny guy, little too serious. Lea sometimes wondered what had happened to him—if, perhaps, he had gone back to his own world. He'd fought with that stupid wooden keyblade, but sometimes Lea thought that Ven was actually a Bearer. Which meant he actually traveled to other worlds—which was so unfair, so amazing, that it filled Lea with a mix of envy and longing. Something told him that he would meet that boy again, someday.

_Me 'n Isa'll go find him_, Lea thought happily, _someday it'll just me the two of us, and we'll see all the worlds together._

Someday.

**(Isa POV)**

Isa sat on the highest waterfall that overlooked the gardens, dangling his bare feet into the cool spray that rushed all around him. He'd found this spot years ago—on the highest tier, a little off-center, was a small rock that seemed to grow from the marble of the man-made waterfalls. The water parted around it, creating a small dry seat where Isa would go when he needed quiet time to think.

"Isa! Hey! Isaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Quiet time over. Isa sighed and looked over to see Lea running across the line of stone where the water tumbled over, not even minding the fact that he could slip and fall down several waterfalls.

"Will you be careful?" Isa snapped. "Do you want to end up with a broken neck, moron?"

Lea laughed, skidding over a particularly fast rush of water. "Oh, Isa, lighten up. Not all of us have a stick up their—"

It was at that moment that Lea's shoes seemed to lose whatever traction they were managing a moment ago and he slipped, one heel dangling dangerously over the abyss of flowing water and hard, unforgiving rocks. Isa was up before he could even think, running and slipping until he hand was tight around Lea's wrist and he jerked his best friend back. They both landed with an audible splash in the upper level of the waterfall, tangled limbs and Lea's manic laughter and Isa shouting expletives.

"See?" Isa yelled, trying unsuccessfully to tug his lower half from under Lea's giggling weight. "I told you to be CAREFUL! And do you listen? No! Because you are a stupid moron who is going to buy the sea-salt ice-cream for a month now!"

Lea rolled over, crushing Isa's kneecaps in the process, and grinned up at his friend. His spiky red hair was wet and flattened, one fire-colored lock slicked across his forehead and cheek. "Aw, jeez. You worry too much, Isa. I'm F-I-N-E, all right? I can handle myself. Got it—"

"If you say," Isa said slowly, voice low with anger, "'got it memorized', I will do something very bad and you will not end up alive at the end of it."

Lea pouts. "You're no fun, you know that?"

"Please get off of me."

"If you say so." Lea grinned and rolls off of Isa's legs. But instead of standing up like any sane person, he continues to splash in the water like a dog, laughing and kicking up great sprays of water.

"Lea—stop that—aren't we—ugh!—wet enough?" Isa cringes as water slaps him in the face, slipping between his parted lips and dotting his eyelashes.

Lea sits up suddenly, flailing limbs and laughter stilled. He turned to look at Isa, wide green eyes serious.

"Isa?"

"What?" Isa sighed, at the same time used and unused to Lea's abrupt thought changes.

"Do you remember when we were little and we promised that no matter what, we'd see what else there was out there?" He gestured vaguely at the sky, and Isa assumed Lea meant the other worlds.

"Yes…" Isa hedged, unsure of where this was exactly going.

"Do you still believe we can do that? See new things? Go on an adventure?" Lea looks so vulnerable at that moment, eyes large and wet, hair slicked over his face, skin pale and dotted with cold.

Something warm and mysterious sparks in Isa's stomach, but he ignores it, stuffing away any feelings he does not like until they are no longer there. "Of course we will. Though, in all honesty, you might just die trying."

"Shut up!" Lea got to his feet, laughing again. "You are so annoying, Iz, it's not even funny."

He offered Isa a hand, warm smile cutting across his open face. Isa grabbed it and pulled himself up, smiling in spite of himself. "Let's go to the gardens, see if we can catch a glimpse of Dilan or something."

Lea grinned. "'Kay."

Isa was still thoroughly wet by the time they reach the gardens, and unhappy about it. On the way over, Lea happily stripped out of his vest, shirt, and scarf, content to be bare-chested in the warm weather.

"C'mon, Isa." Lea rolled his eyes. "Your such a prude. You'll dry faster if you take that big-ass sweater off."

"Shut up, Lea." Isa blushed.

Lea snorted and stretched. His bare chest was scrawny, no muscles or fat to speak off. Usually Lea seemed like skin stretched tight over bones, something his mother worried about and Isa found interesting.

They were just rounding a corner when Lea froze, snapping his hand out to stop Isa in his tracks. Before Isa could protest, he saw what had caused his friend to stop dead in his tracks: sitting with his back to them was a man. A stranger.

Isa jerked his head back the way they came, ready to run for it, but Lea shook his head. Typical. Isa couldn't believe that—

"I would appreciate it," the stranger said in a husky, oddly empty voice, "if you both would stay for a moment."

"Who are you?" Lea asked, his voice so even and brave even in the face of a stranger holding what looked like a sword made out of red smoke. Isa swallowed, impressed in spite of himself.

"My name is Genesis." The man replied. "Though I don't think that begins to explain who I am."

"Huh?" Lea raised his red eyebrows.

"_Ripples form on the water's surface/The wandering soul knows no rest_." The man murmured.

Isa's brain started to flip quickly through the familiarity of the quote and a pencil in his hand, Lea whining about Gifts and the smell of paper, ink, and a thick book that grinned up at him from his desk.

"That's from LOVELESS." Isa said, looking up sharply.

"LOVELESS?" Lea's face screwed up for a second. "Wasn't that the book we read for last year's summer homework?"

The man cleared his throat uncomfortably, red leather coat shifting slightly as he walked closer to the two boys. "I am looking for a boy. Cloud. Do you know him?"

"Cloud." Lea tapped his chin. "Isn't he that scrawny kid who's always following Aeris around?"

"Lea!" Isa hissed, giving his best friend the _don't tell creepy strangers about people we know _look.

The man, Genesis, grinned. "Thank you, boys. I will look for this _scrawny kid_ you speak of."

He turned and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Lea cried. "Where did you come from?"

Genesis paused for a second before speaking in a low voice. "_Even if the morrow is barren of promises/Nothing shall forestall my return._"

As soon as the last word fell from the man's lips, a gigantic black wing burst from the man's shoulder making both Lea and jump.

The man took off in a flurry of black feathers, leaving Isa and Lea staring up in awe.

Before either of them could speak, Lea's phone gave off a small chirp. He reached for it and shakily flipped open the screen.

"Is it…Arlene?" Isa whispered hoarsely.

Lea shook his head, paler than usual, and turned the phone so Isa could read the display:

**WELCOME TO "RED LEATHER"! THE OFFICIAL FANCLUB OF SOLDIER 1st CLASS GENESIS! YOU CAN NOW RECEIVE UPDATES AND TRIVIA FACTS ABOUT OUR FAVORITE HERO DIRECTLY TO YOUR PHONE! REMEMBER TO RETURN KNOWING WE'RE THERE! **


End file.
